FIFA's Focus Shifts to Online
With the World Cup over, it's going back to club play, and EA is taking things online.
Published: August 4, 2006
The World Cup -- along with all the controversy the final game brought with it -- is over. Maybe it was the fact that Little Italy here in San Francisco was absolutely mobbed by viewers rooting for a very obvious team, but it seemed bigger here in the States than before, and you could hear nearly everyone talking about it -- despite that fact that (surprise, surprise), the US never made it close to the finals.
Alas, as a perennial soccer series, EA's FIFA franchise is rarely given time to ride the wave of attention that comes with the four-year worldwide competition. Case in point: the fact that FIFA 07 is going to hit in two friggin' months. In case you're wondering, yes, 2006 FIFA World Cup hit just four months ago, making for less than six months between titles. Not exactly a whole lot of time to separate the two titles and make any advances to the gameplay. Or is there?
FIFA 07 promises the usual raft of generalized promises from EA; a "TV-style presentation," better AI with special awareness and tighter team play, a deeper, more challenging Manager Mode with retooled player wages and stats, more signature movies from international superstar players and the inclusion of 28 worldwide leagues (including MLS and Mexican 1st Division for North America). The thing is, in addition to the sort of year-on-year advances you'd expect, EA has given the one area of play that's could be potentially the strongest and beefed it up considerably.
"We are still innovating the gameplay in our current-gen game, and this year, the new online Interactive Leagues will bring together soccer fans from around the world and allow them to experience the glory and shame of their clubs, 24/7," explains FIFA 07 producer Joe Booth.
It's the online play that seems to have made the biggest strides; interactive leagues let you play for the Mexican 1st Division, F.A. Premier League, French League or Bundesliga, in matches that actually sync up with the real-life schedules of the leagues. Aggregate outcomes are constantly being tracked so you can see where your club's standings are reflected overall. In a nod to the power of the PSP, both versions of FIFA share a Manager Mode that allows you to start on either system and continue at any time on the other, bouncing back and forth as you see fit. Inter-system connectivity is nothing new, but until now, few games have tried to replicate the same experience on both consoles.
It's an interesting progression of the series, though we're not entirely surprised to see that with the short span between the last FIFA game, there's no next-gen plans at the moment (leaving Konami and their [game=]Winning Eleven[/games] series ample time to enjoy a next-gen debut, though it'll just be on the 360 this year. Still, six months seems enough time to keep adding new stuff, and when it hits in a couple months, our boy Matt Finney will be sure to let you know how it's turned out.
Alas, as a perennial soccer series, EA's FIFA franchise is rarely given time to ride the wave of attention that comes with the four-year worldwide competition. Case in point: the fact that FIFA 07 is going to hit in two friggin' months. In case you're wondering, yes, 2006 FIFA World Cup hit just four months ago, making for less than six months between titles. Not exactly a whole lot of time to separate the two titles and make any advances to the gameplay. Or is there?
FIFA 07 promises the usual raft of generalized promises from EA; a "TV-style presentation," better AI with special awareness and tighter team play, a deeper, more challenging Manager Mode with retooled player wages and stats, more signature movies from international superstar players and the inclusion of 28 worldwide leagues (including MLS and Mexican 1st Division for North America). The thing is, in addition to the sort of year-on-year advances you'd expect, EA has given the one area of play that's could be potentially the strongest and beefed it up considerably.
"We are still innovating the gameplay in our current-gen game, and this year, the new online Interactive Leagues will bring together soccer fans from around the world and allow them to experience the glory and shame of their clubs, 24/7," explains FIFA 07 producer Joe Booth.
It's the online play that seems to have made the biggest strides; interactive leagues let you play for the Mexican 1st Division, F.A. Premier League, French League or Bundesliga, in matches that actually sync up with the real-life schedules of the leagues. Aggregate outcomes are constantly being tracked so you can see where your club's standings are reflected overall. In a nod to the power of the PSP, both versions of FIFA share a Manager Mode that allows you to start on either system and continue at any time on the other, bouncing back and forth as you see fit. Inter-system connectivity is nothing new, but until now, few games have tried to replicate the same experience on both consoles.
It's an interesting progression of the series, though we're not entirely surprised to see that with the short span between the last FIFA game, there's no next-gen plans at the moment (leaving Konami and their [game=]Winning Eleven[/games] series ample time to enjoy a next-gen debut, though it'll just be on the 360 this year. Still, six months seems enough time to keep adding new stuff, and when it hits in a couple months, our boy Matt Finney will be sure to let you know how it's turned out.
